Category: BOOST

UNDP Europe and Central Asia and the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced today the selected participants of BOOST’s Polish Challenge Fund, which brings together innovators and changemakers from across the region to tackle the effects of the pandemic through digitalization, low touch economies, and wellbeing solutions. BOOST, a regional acceleration program, was launched by UNDP Europe and Central Asia to help address the effects of Covid-19 across the region. After receiving 10 submissions, the jury selected five companies to join the BOOST program to accelerate recovery and experimentation in the wake of the unprecedented challenges we currently face. The winners of the Polish Challenge Fund are:
  • Expansio (CodeAll)
  • Bin-e
  • Smrt.bio Central Europe
  • Piotr Janczukowicz Insektum-2 Firma Usługowa-Dezynfekcja-Dezynsekcja-Deratyzacja
  • Airly
The selected participants will engage in an intensive learning program on digital transformation, technology for impact and crowdfunding, explore mentorship opportunities with key experts and become part of the BOOST regional network. The winners will receive funding between $20,000 and $40,000 to prototype and implement their solution in Ukraine or Republic of Belarus.
UNDP Europe and Central Asia and Koç Holding announced today the selected participants of BOOST’s Civil Society Technology Challenge, which aims to accelerate the digital transformation of civil society organizations (CSOs) to increase their impact and outreach amidst the Covid-19 pandemic. BOOST, a regional acceleration program, was launched by UNDP Europe and Central Asia to help address the effects of Covid-19 across the region. After receiving nearly 40 applications, twenty CSOs from Turkey were selected to join the BOOST program to support them in mobilizing digital and emerging technologies to respond to complex societal and environmental development issues. The selected organizations for the Civil Society Technology Challenge are: The selected organizations will engage in an intensive learning program on digital transformation, business and technology for impact, and crowdfunding. They will be part of a customized mentorship program with key experts and become part of the BOOST regional network. At the end of the program, the organizations will participate in the final demo day/pitching event and  only five will be selected to receive up to USD 10,000 to prototype, implement and scale-up their innovative solution.
UNDP Europe and Central Asia and the Slovak Ministry of Finance announced today the selected participants of BOOST’s Innovation Challenge Fund, which brings together innovators and changemakers from across the region to tackle the effects of the pandemic through digitalization, low touch economies, and wellbeing solutions. BOOST, a regional acceleration program, was launched by UNDP Europe and Central Asia to help address the effects of Covid-19 across the region. After receiving over 60 submissions, the jury selected 15 startups and CSOs to join the BOOST program to accelerate recovery and experimentation in the wake of the unprecedented challenges we currently face. The winners of the Innovation Challenge Fund are:
  • PhaseGrowth OÜ
  • NGO “Center Eidos”
  • DokTok
  • COMMON Store
  • H2i Balkans d.o.o. Sarajevo
  • De Facto Consultancy
  • Rights and Freedoms of Turkmen Citizens
  • Flourish
  • Faculty for Montenegrin Language and Literature – FCJK
  • Yesil Science
  • Civic Alliance
  • Bioscope
  • Zombies LLC
  • Simple MM LLC
  • 4Future.ai
The selected participants will engage in an intensive learning program on digital transformation, technology for impact and crowdfunding, explore mentorship opportunities with key experts and become part of the BOOST regional network. At the end of the program, these organizations will be able to pitch their solution, but only five will be selected to win up to $15,000 to prototype and implement solutions. Solutions should be applied in more than one country and enhance regional collaboration in addressing the crisis.

To tackle the long-term effects of Covid-19, UNDP Europe and Central Asia is launching BOOST, a regional acceleration program for social impact innovation. It will support emerging solutions in the region in the areas of digitalization, economy and health.

“The Covid-19 pandemic is an unprecedented challenge. While we do not yet know its full impact, it is set to change the future of work, economy, governance and health and severely affects all areas of development. Our new platform is designed to boost and scale effective local solutions” said Gerd Trogemann, Manager of the Istanbul Regional Hub of UNDP’s Regional Bureau for Europe and Central Asia.

BOOST will feature a series of challenges which address development issues related to: digitization, economy and wellbeing. These will be open for innovative solutions from private sector entities, research institutes, academia, and civil society organizations in the Europe and Central Asia region. Applicants will be able to apply for one or more challenges until early September 2020.

Winning teams will have access to the UNDP-backed network of peers, funders, and experts and take part in an intensive six-month online аcceleration program, designed to prepare them to roll out their solutions. The program includes both workshops and individual mentoring sessions taught by experienced business, med-tech, social-tech, digital technologies and impact professionals.

BOOST is a joint initiative by UNDP, the Slovak Ministry of Finance, the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and others. UNDP and partners will further support the scalability of effective and sustainable solutions across the Europe and Central Asia region.

For more information on the open challenges and program. www.boostimpact.org.